AI Has Nothing To Do With Intelligence

AI has nothing to do with intelligence but people believe the marketing hype, mostly because we have a distorted idea of what intelligence is, largely due to the media.

Take the quiz show “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader” that says in its name that it’s about whether contestants are as intelligent as a fifth grade student. What the show actually tests is who is more familiar with the grade five curriculum, grade five students or people who have not been in school for twenty tears or more. I know who I am betting on.

And take the famously super intelligent Jeopardy champions. Maybe some of these people are highly intelligent but that is not why they are Jeopardy champions because Jeopardy is not about intelligence. It is about knowing stuff, particularly the type of stuff Jeopardy asks questions about. At best it is about knowledge, not intelligence.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines intelligence as: “the ability to learn, understand, and make judgments or have opinions that are based on reason”. (Source)

I would refine that to: “the ability to understand and analyze information in order to make rational decisions based on that information”.

Intelligence is not about information it is about reasoning.

I remember what some might call the first forerunner to Alexa and other chat bots. It was called Eliza

ELIZA's creator, Weizenbaum, intended the program as a method to explore communication between humans and machines. He was surprised and shocked that individuals, including Weizenbaum's secretary, attributed human-like feelings to the computer program.[3] Many academics believed that the program would be able to positively influence the lives of many people, particularly those with psychological issues, and that it could aid doctors working on such patients' treatment.[3][13] While ELIZA was capable of engaging in discourse, it could not converse with true understanding.[14] However, many early users were convinced of ELIZA's intelligence and understanding, despite Weizenbaum's insistence to the contrary.[6] (Source)

This was not artificial intelligence and neither are the latest claimants, the large language models (LLMs).

A large language model (LLM) is a language model notable for its ability to achieve general-purpose language understanding and generation. LLMs acquire these abilities by learning statistical relationships from text documents during a computationally intensive self-supervised and semi-supervised training process.[1] LLMs are artificial neural networks following a transformer architecture.[2]

As autoregressive language models, they work by taking an input text and repeatedly predicting the next token or word.[3] Up to 2020, fine tuning was the only way a model could be adapted to be able to accomplish specific tasks. Larger sized models, such as GPT-3, however, can be prompt-engineered to achieve similar results.[4] They are thought to acquire knowledge about syntax, semantics and "ontology" inherent in human language corpora, but also inaccuracies and biases present in the corpora.[5]

Notable examples include OpenAI's GPT models (e.g., GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, used in ChatGPT), Google's PaLM (used in Bard), and Meta's LLaMA, as well as BLOOM, Ernie 3.0 Titan, and Anthropic's Claude 2. (Source)

Using statistics to mimic what a human might say or write is not reasoning and it is certainly not intelligence.

It might not be so bad if these systems did not claim to intelligent but only claimed to be able to retrieve accurate information and did that well but they are designed to NOT do that.

I remember the early Internet and search engines with advanced boolean search capability like Alta Vista and the early versions of Google before they sold their top search results to the highest bidder.

Then the Internet was mainly academic institutions and community based organizations. The information on the Internet was relatively reliable most of the time. That information is still there if you pay attention to the actual source.

LLMs could use an information base based on actual reliable sources like Encyclopedia Britannica or Wikipedia, or the collections of actual scientific journals or other respected sources.

But instead they have adopted the bigger/more is better approach feeding as much of the Internet as possible into their models, often without permission of the sources/creators. This leads to an information base dominated by misinformation and disinformation leading to results like “there is no water in the Atlantic Ocean”. But obvious errors are not the danger here but the amplification of misinformation and disinformation in the political sphere.

But it is worse. These disinformation models are proving to be even more wasteful of energy and harmful to the planet than the cryptocurrency scam and their believers/followers just as faithful and misguided. And for what. Obviously they hope to make a shitload of money from this scam.

AI is clearly not intelligent, just dangerous.

Is There Hope For Palestine

 I wrote this in November 2007 on the hope for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

The solution essentially comes down to understanding the most and least that each side can accept.

We could argue forever whether the State of Israel should have been created the way it was but, as most Palestinians have come to accept, that is a historical fact that is simply not going to change. It has been a huge and difficult step for the Palestinians to accept that, after all it was their land that was stolen from them. But come to accept it they have. That is the most they can be expected to accept. The least they can be expected to accept is to have their own Palestinian State and have Israel give back the land they stole since the creation of the State of Israel with no exceptions. The original boundaries must be restored, including the status of Jerusalem at the time Israel was created.

The least that Israel can be expected to accept is to have their right to exist accepted by the international community, including Palestinians and Arab states. The most they can be expected to give up is all the land they stole after the creation of the state of Israel, a not unreasonable expectation. (Source)

Considering the current circumstances, conventional wisdom would suggest hope for any solution may have been set back for decades, or centuries, unless the backlash from the rest of the world (apart from the United States), along with that of the Israeli people leads to the establishment of a progressive pro-Palestinian Israeli government, and by Pro Palestinian I mean one committed to the right of Palestinians to live and a Palestinian state to exist. Then maybe such a two state solution can become reality. After enough time to build trust it would ideally lead to a European Union type alliance between peoples that are natural partners, having lived peacefully together in the past and being genetically related . My preference, but who am I to say, would be for a single multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious secular state, because I believe religious based states are always a bad idea.

One might wonder if Hamas’s actions were based on a strategy of desperation, thinking that a massive terrorist attack would result in the expected disproportionate genocidal Israeli response, and hoping for a backlash from the rest of the world and the Israeli people, leading to change of government and policy in Israel. In effect, a sacrificing thousands of Palestinian lives (as Hamas certainly understands the power imbalance) in the hope of creating the conditions for the creation of a truly independent Palestinian state as a result.

It has been difficult for people to say out loud one of the statements above, not because the facts do not justify it, but because most of the world does not want to believe it

Franzis Black and White Projects Professional 6 Photo Film Emulation Versions

This is a demonstration of the film emulation capabilities of Franzis Black & White Projects. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the emulation provided by this software but it is indeed an interesting idea. I have not included all the options available but have selected a few film types from the brands I am familiar with. You will see that in many cases the differences are subtle but others are noticeably different.

I have selected a base setting in Franzis Black and White Projects of Natural Maximum Details and Optimization Natural with various film emulations.  Since infra red film does not seem to be included in the choices I have also included a variation with Landscape Infrared setting, as well as an optimized colour version (I don’t recall the software I used for that) just for comparison.

Original From Camera (Panasonic Lumix TS5) 

 Optimized Colour Version

 

Franzis Black and White Projects Versions

 Digital Negative

 

Agfa APX25

 

 Agfa APX 100

 

Agfa APX Pan 400

 

Fuji Neopan Acros 100

 

 Fuji Neopan 400

 Fuji Neopan Neopan 1600

 

 

Ilford Delta 100

 

Ilford Delta 400

 

Ilford Delta 3200

 

Kodak T-Max 100

 

Kodak T-Max 400

 

Kodak T-Max 3200

 

Landscape Infared

 

Palestine – What If

 Balfour Declaration (November 2nd, 1917)

"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."  (Source)

What if when the British left Palestine after World War I they had lived up to the words of the Balfour Declaration. What if they had given Palestine back to the Palestinians, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Arab and Jewish, and established a secular government with freedom of religion with the condition that all Jews be allowed to immigrate and gain citizenship and no existing residents be displaced.

There is nothing in the concept of a Jewish homeland that says it has to be a theocracy or religious based state or that it be a segregated or apartheid religious state. What if that Jewish homeland was one where Jews, Muslims, Christians and others lived peacefully together. Even if the population became majority Jewish due to Jewish immigration I cannot help but think the history of the Middle East, and conceivably the world, would have been much different.

Remembrance Day and Righteous Wars

When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s Remembrance Day was a very solemn occasion. There were still a lot of World War II veterans participating and even some from World War I, as well as veterans from the Korean War (sometimes referred to as a “police action)”.

World War II is probably seen as the most righteous war ever in the minds of the public. World War I, on the other hand, they had little understanding of, besides it being fought for King and Empire. But remember back then the veterans who fought in both World Wars did not fight as Canadians but as British Subjects, Canadian citizenship not being established untill 1947. Empire was important back then, as anyone who went to school in the 1960s in Ontario can attest. As for the Korean War it was fought against the “evil commies”, so again, seen as a just war.

Later came Lester Pearson and peacekeeping, and another group of veterans seen as being on the right side of history.

However in more recent years the righteousness of the wars and conflicts Canada has been involved in has been more ambiguous leaving Remembrance Day seemingly playing a less important role in Canadians’ minds and lives.

All Photography is “Photoshopped”

A pretty bold claim but what do I mean by it. Well I do not mean “photoshopped” in the sense of someone going through their photo collection post divorce and removing their ex-spouse from all their family photographs. I mean something more subtle than that.

The appearance of every photograph is the direct result of decisions taken by the photographer starting even before the photo is taken and finishing with film or digital processing.

With film photography it starts with the choice of the film and even the choice of the camera. Different films have distinct differences to the point that some modern digital editing software has options to emulate different types of film.

And then there are the camera settings. My 35 mm film camera allowed me to change the film speed or depth of field for different circumstances or different effects. As well, different coloured (or other) filters can be placed over the lens to change the appearance of the photo. That cool flowing water effect on waterfalls is the direct result of the settings chosen by the photographer.

Modern digital cameras have even more control over setting with different type of exposure zone settings, white balance and specialized settings for close-ups, moving objects, night or indoor photography and on and on.

Of course most people think of post capture editing when referring to “photoshopping” even though a lot of photographer decisions before that stage affect the appearance of the photo.

There are a lot of reasons besides deception to use photo editing software to change or enhance a photograph.

A major reason to use photo editing software is to make photos appear more like what the photographer actually saw. Others include enhancing a photo taken on a dull day to look like a photo taken on a bright day, or to remove distracting elements like power lines that are not the main focus of the photograph.

The filters a film photographer might place over the lens when taking a photo can be applied afterwards in the “digital darkroom”. Doing it after talking the photo allows for a lot more experimentation to see what creates the best result. There are even filters designed to make a photograph look like a painting or drawing. Photo editing extends into the photographer/artist’s own sense of creativity.

When I first started into serious amateur photography I was very much a realist, the photo should be what you saw and not enhanced. Indeed I was even criticized for taking too many “record shots” rather than doing more creative photography. I would have described my philosophy of photography as one that believed that composition was 90% of photography – it is to capture what is there. After getting into digital photography I have gradually changed to seeing it as more of a creative process where the editing process afterwards is almost as important as taking the photo. Now i would say that composition is 75% of photography.

This is all to say that a photograph should not just be what was there but also what the photographer saw with both their eyes and their minds.

For some examples of how photo editing can provide different visions of the same original subject see PhotoVersions Created with Franzis Color Projects and Photo Versions Created with Franzis Black & White Projects.

What If We Had A Different Non-Political Form of Representative Government

I have been thinking about what a non-political from of representative government might look like and whether it could be considered democratic or not.

One model came to mind, a Council One Hundred that would set policy, provide Cabinet Ministers and oversee the government administration.

With 50 peoples representatives chosen randomly in a process similar to jurors that would serve four year terms with 50% changing every two years to provide continuity.

• 10 youth representatives comprised of citizens 12 to 24.
• 20 general representatives representing citizens 25 to 64.
• 10 elders representatives representing citizens over 65
• 10 representatives of non-citizen permanent residents

And with another 50 selected representatives chosen by organizations representing various areas of knowledge.

• 10 representatives of indigenous peoples
• 10 representatives of experts in the physical sciences, social sciences and humanities
• 10 representative of workers organizations selected by organized labour
• 10 representatives of social movements including environmental organizations
• 10 representatives of small business and self employed workers

The big question is whether this would be more or less representative, more or less democratic, more or less beneficial to the people than our current system.

Postscript

Immediately after writing this post I realized this would make an interesting configuration for a reformed Senate.

 

Fernbank Road Pond Photo Versions

Slideshow of photos taken along the Fernbank Road Pond in Stittsville in July 2023 with my Panasonic Lumix FZ100 camera and edited with Photoshop Elements 2023, Simply Good Pictures 5, Franzis Color Projects 6 Professional and Franzis Black & White Projects 6 Professional.

 

(View in YouTube to view full screen)

Imagining A Post Capitalist World

This is not meant to be a comprehensive analysis but an imagining of some of the features of a post capitalist world.

OK lets get this over with first. The first thing we will notice is the numbers we use to measure the success of a capitalist economy, GDP, GNP and economic growth will look bad. That is because the goals of the new economy will not be excessive production, consumption, energy waste and unsustainable growth. The new economy will be based on people not stuff. While our so-called standard of living will decline our quality of life will increase.

Because of higher minimum wages and a Guaranteed Basic Income everyone will have at least a comfortable modest life with adequate housing and all their basic needs met because there are enough resources to provide this when there is not excessive inequality and waste by the excessively wealthy.

Excessive inequality will be eliminated because of an aggressive progressive tax system based on the principle that everyone should contribute to the society/economy based on their ability.

Everyone, not just the very wealthy, will finally benefit from the use of machines to increase productivity and most drudge work will now be done by machines. The effect will be that everyone will have reduced working hours for a shorter period of their life. Work will no longer be a necessity to survive but something people crave for the fulfillment it brings to their lives.

Because of a societal decision all work requiring intelligence or decision making will be reserved for human beings.

Elimination of the exploitative capitalist practice of producing goods in low wage countries will see the elimination of excessive wasted energy transporting goods as most food will be produced within 100 kilometres of where it is consumed and other goods within 500 kilometres.

With increased time for themselves education will be an important part of everyone’s life and as with health care, treated as a public good and paid for collectively. Arts and culture, theatre and music, will be emphasized with the emphasis on local artists and productions (rather than overpriced “superstars”) as well as outdoor recreation.

Small businesses, where the owner earns his income by working in the business, will be encouraged and supported. For large enterprises, ownership and control of the means of production (factories, computer facilities, etc) will reside with the workers producing the products or providing the services, most often through co-operatives, except for public services like education, health care and public utilities where control and ownership will reside with the people through their democratically elected governments. All workers will have an effective, not just theoretical, right to join a union and bargain collectively.

The overall philosophy of the society/economy will be "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs".

The stages of corporate social media

Corporate social media essentially goes through three stages.

The first is new, free and wonderful, lots of functionality, user friendly and free, or at least pretending to be free. It’s purpose is to build a customer/product base (as the customer is the product).

The second stage is monetization. The purpose is to make money so once the free loss leader period is over measures to create revenue are introduced. These are usually things the users can live with and are introduced along with measures to make the customer dependent on the product.

Once that is achieved we move into stage three, equivalent to the final stage of capitalism. We move from earning a fair profit to profit maximization with no regard for the user, the assumption being that by this time the user is convinced their very existence is dependent on the product, also known as the Facebook effect.

With the introduction of Brand X, EvilElon is clearly telling us he is moving Twitter into Stage Three as capitalism moves into it’s final stage.